Oh, those unmistakable signs that school is just round the corner: kids returning from camp, summer jobs ending, and the last long-weekend of the summer looming just around the corner. Yes, we’re deep in the heat of that other season that bridges the gap from Summer to Fall: Back-to-School.

Remember how much fun it was to go shopping with your parents for back-to-school supplies? Even though you didn’t want summer to end, a new school year represented a golden opportunity to reinvent yourself.

Years ago, you probably didn’t think about laptops and phone plans when you were begging your parents for the latest and greatest. But kids today are incredibly connected – a whopping 82 percent of those between 13-17 have smartphones.

The ritual of back-to-school shopping hasn’t gone away – but it’s definitely changed with the growth of mobile and online retail. Whether kids are heading to school for the first time, or packing up their car to head off for to university, more and more, we are relying on the Internet to find the best back-to-school deals. In fact, the number of back-to-school related searches on Google in Canada are already ahead of last year’s record pace.

Back-to-School: Digital Days

We’ve highlighted some of the key back-to-school shopping trends emerging this year in a nifty new Infographic you can find on Think Insights:

The average Canadian will spend $488 on back-to-school supplies – roughly a third of it ($163) online.

In August, searches peak for the essentials, including school supplies, laptops and phone plans.

79 percent of shoppers will search online for back-to-school deals.

For the wait-and-see set, back-to-school searches continue throughout the entire month of September.

Getting inspired with video
With a ravenous appetite for online video, Canadians are increasingly turning to YouTube for back-to-school product information and ideas.

Canadian Brands are also connecting with back-to-school shoppers on YouTube - Walmart Canada, and Staples Canada have already uploaded back-to-school videos on their YouTube channels to promote sales and school supplies.

Never too early
And while back-to-school season is in full swing, apparently it’s not too early to start thinking of
that other big season just around the corner: Halloween. That’s right, searches for Halloween costumes are already on the rise, up more than 200% in the last 30 days!

Make sure the Google Search app is in the proverbial backpack when you head off to school this fall. Download the Google Search app for iPhone, or use it on Android to help find your way around campus, translate professor-speak and make sure you’re not late for your next class… all without typing a word!

Whatever screen you’re on when you head to school, just open Google Search, tap the mic icon, and ask “Where’s the Ryerson Student Union Building?” or “Do I need an umbrella today?” You can speak naturally, and Google will answer with real-world answers.

Here are some suggestions for putting Google Voice Search through its back-to-school paces.

“Where is Pitman Hall?”

New dorm, new school, maybe an entirely new city? Tap on the mic and tell Google what you’re looking for. If you have the audio volume turned up on your device, you’ll hear Google tell you the address of Ryerson University’s largest residence, and you’ll get the dorm’s location on a map. Tap navigate or just say “Navigate to Pitman Hall,” and follow Google Maps’ turn-by-turn directions for driving, walking, public transit or biking.

“Define ‘laggard’”

If your History of Europe 101 prof tells the class she has “no time for laggards”, tap the mic, ask for the definition of the term (no need to worry about typos) and you’ll know what exactly she means. The definition is spoken back to you and available on your screen.

“Who was Charlemagne?”

Don’t be a laggard. Google Voice search uses the power of the Knowledge Graph to deliver exactly the information you need, exactly when you need it.

“Set calendar event, history study group at 7pm”

Tap the mic and with a few words you have updated your calendar to make sure you stay on top of your studies.

“Set alarm for 30 minutes from now, label: Laundry.”

Google Voice Search is seamlessly integrated into your Android device, making sure that you get your whites out the dryer before they wrinkle… or your roommate dumps them on the floor.

It’s ok to be homesick. Tap the mic and reminders seamlessly integrate with Google Now.

“What is the status of Air Canada Flight 103”

Listen to your flight status or check the results on your screen. Google Voice Search makes sure you don’t miss that flight home for turkey dinner!

Heading off to school can be pretty overwhelming experience with so much to take in all at once. But if you have a question or need some help, don’t forget to speak up. Google Voice Search may have the answers you’re looking for this fall.

This is the second part of our Back to School Week series on the Google Canada blog. Stay tuned for more posts throughout the week for students, parents and teachers heading back to school!
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Kicking off the school year with Google Drive can make your life easier by saving you time and improving productivity whether you’re in class, working on a group project, or running a club or association.“The dog ate my homework”
Who hasn’t lost an assignment or left a set of notes behind while running around campus or scrambling to get to school? Never again! If you take notes or keep your assignments in Google Drive, you can rest easy that they’re securely stored in the cloud and available whenever you need them, on any device, just in case you need to edit them on the go, on your smartphone or tablet.

With Google Docs, you can create a master set of notes or a study guide to share and collaborate on with your classmates. Any set of lecture notes will be better with a little help from your friends. Did you miss one of the professor’s points? Put a comment in the margin and add a friend to help explain what you missed.

Group work in a snap
Having trouble finding a convenient time to get a group of classmates together? Google Docs and Slides can let you collaborate on a paper or presentation at your own time and from different locations. Whether it’s a 3-page paper or a 30-slide whopper, they’re perfect for break week assignments, or you can even join a Hangout to work face-to-face with your team members in real time.

Stop sending large attachments, or cutting and pasting from multiple versions - with Drive, you can share ideas, chat or comment as you go, and see all of your group’s changes and edits as they happen. Plus, you’ll never have to hit “save” again.

Organizing clubs and groups made easy
Are you busy running a club or association? Budgets, agendas and event planning can all be so much easier!

Stay organized together by creating a shared folder so that others can find and access important documents, making changes without the hassle of multiple versions. Then, keep track of your club’s budget by tracking expenses with Sheets, allowing members to enter expenses so the budget is accurate, up-to-the-moment and available for everyone to check. Sheets are also a great way to coordinate volunteer efforts and schedule assignments quickly and easily.

This year, as you head back to school, start off on the right foot with Google Drive and explore how collaborative tools like Docs, Sheets and Slides can make organizing your studies that much easier.Posted by Leslie Church, Google Canada

This week, stay tuned to the Google Canada blog as we profile tips, tricks and other useful information for students, parents and teachers as everyone gets ready to head back to school. For today's first post in the series, we look at some terrific educational content on YouTube and explore how YouTube can help students of all ages find inspiration or a little after-school help online.
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Ever since Sal Khan uploaded his first video (on Least Common Multiples) to YouTube in November 2006, the demand for educational content on YouTube has been growing and growing - to billions of views last year. In fact, education is one of the fastest growing categories on YouTube.

Video has its own unique educational properties, lending itself to a self-paced, customized learning experience. Video can bring lessons to life and help parents to explore their children’s interests.

Thousands of teachers from all over the world are also turning to YouTube to share their expertise and reach a global classroom - 80% of views on YouTube’s EDU videos come from outside the U.S. This new generation of teachers is sharing videos on everything from language to science techniques to music theory.

YouTube EDU has over 400 colleges and universities in the US and Canada with varying content. There are also a number of YouTube partners both from both countries that have popular educational videos, including some of the channels below.

The “next Sal Khans” are here. Meet a few Canadian YouTubers making great educational videos:

Pancake Manor: Zach and Reggie are puppets that sing educational songs for kids & their awesome parents. Always a fan of Jim Henson, Billy Reid wanted to create a destination for families online. With entertaining and educational songs like "The Planets" for kids, their programs are popular across the world, even receiving videos from a classroom of kids in Istanbul, Turkey, singing the song from the video, “Shapes.”

Minute Physics: Animator and genius, Henry Reich teaches complex physics in minute-long segments with quick drawings and speedy explanations. His short videos inspire awe and also make you wonder why your college physics lecture needed to be three hours long. He has also recently launched MinuteEarth (short lessons about the planet).

With all that changes in the marketing industry, one thing remains the same: great marketing delivers breakthrough ideas built on deep insights. And thanks to digital technology, marketers have never had better resources to gather and bring those insights to life.

Today, we’re a launching Think Insights for Canada - a place to go for Google trends and research, be inspired by the some of the best digital campaigns around, and for useful tools to drive insights. You’ll also find industry-leading case studies and interviews with innovators and experts from Canada and around the world—all to help you make the most of the web.

Every month, we’ll publish content across industries and address topics on the minds of marketers. Here’s a taste of what we’ll be sharing:

Insights: we'll share Google search trends, consumer insights and our latest research on the Canadian consumer. Take a look at Our Mobile Planet to learn how smartphone use is changing shopping in Canada, and how marketers can take advantage.

Perspectives: In our Perspectives section, we tap our own experts for example Tara Levy on the Engagement Project —as well as digital visionaries like Mitch Joel and Jonathan Macdonald—to lend their insights and analysis on the topics that marketers are talking about.

Digital Creative Gallery: get inspired by the industry's best creative, and add yours to the collection, we’re just starting to collect the best of the best -- help us make this a resource to show and share.

Think Insights will also be the new home for the Canadian YouTube Ads Leaderboard showing which YouTube ads most moved audiences this month, through a winning combination of savvy promotion and smart creative strategy.

Stay Connected
We built google.ca/think to help you stay up-to-date on the latest thinking in marketing, and arm yourself with data to gain insights for your business. Explore the site and if you like what you discover, subscribe to Think Letter for a monthly round-up of our most popular content or circle us on Google+.

I hope you find something useful for your own unique challenges -- we’d love to hear from you with suggestions -- you can share or request topics here.